CHL League Championships Set

By League Press Release

May 1st, 2002

REBELS AND TIGRES MOVE ON TO LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The defending MasterCard Memorial Cup champion Red Deer Rebels (1) and theVictoriaville Tigres have moved on to their league finals, as just six teamsremain alive for a berth in 2002 MasterCard Memorial Cup.

The Rebels completed a comeback from a 3-1 series deficit to win the WesternHockey League’s Eastern Conference championship Tuesday night, downing theBrandon Wheat Kings (7) 5-2 in Game 7 of their series. Red Deer wins thebest-of-seven series 4-3.

Kootenay Ice and Red Deer will battle for the WHL championship startinglater this week. The winner goes to the MasterCard Memorial Cup, May 18-26,2002 at the Guelph Centre for Sports and Entertainment, joining the hostGuelph Storm and the other two league champions.

The Victoriaville Tigres defeated the Shawinigan Cataractes (5) 5-2 Tuesdaynight in Shawinigan, completing a big upset in the Lebel Conferencechampionship series. The Tigres win that series 4-3 and now meet theAcadie-Bathurst Titan (2) for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey Leaguechampionship starting Friday night at Acadie-Bathurst.

The Ontario Hockey League Championship series opens Wednesday night in Eriewhen the Barrie Colts take on the Erie Otters (8) in Game One.

On Tuesday night in the WHL, the defending MasterCard Memorial Cup championRed Deer Rebels (1) completed their comeback by downing the Brandon WheatKings (7) 5-2 in the Eastern Conference championship series Game 7. Red Deerwins the series 4-3 and will meet the Kootenay Ice for the WHL title.

At Red Deer, Boyd Gordon scored three goals in the second period to lead theRebels back to the WHL finals. Derek Meech and Colby Armstrong scored theother Red Deer goals, while Randy Ponte and Kevin Harris replied forBrandon. Cam Ward made 26 saves in goal for the winners.

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Erie Otters (8) will meet the Barrie Colts in the OHL ChampionshipSeries starting Wednesday night. The full final schedule is listed below.

The OHL semi-final playoff schedule and results to date are listed below.Also below are the OHL second round and first round results.

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE – CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Wed. May 1 at Erie, 7:30 p.m.Fri. May 3 at Barrie, 7:30 p.m.Mon. May 6 at Erie, 7:30 p.m.Wed. May 8 at Barrie, 7:30 p.m.Fri. May 10 at Erie, 7:30 p.m. *Sat. May 11 at Barrie, 7:30 p.m. *Tues. May 14 at Erie, 7:30 p.m. *

* If necessary

QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

The QMJHL Championship Series begins Friday night at Acadie-Bathurst whenthe Titan (2) takes on the Victoriaville Tigres in the best-of-seven series.The winner moves on to the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

On Tuesday night, the Tigres won the Lebel Conference championship byupsetting the Shawinigan Cataractes (5) 5-2 in Game 7 at Shawinigan.Victoriaville wins that series 4-3.

At Shawinigan, Mikhail Deev scored two goals and added one assist to leadthe Tigres, while Carl Mallette had one goal and two assists and MatthewLombardi contributed one goal and one assist. Daniel Boisclair made 29 savesin goal, while Charles Gauthier had one goal and one assist for the losers.

For full QMJHL statistics, check the official QMJHL web site. Here are theQMJHL schedules.

QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE – FINALS

Fri., May 3 at Acadie-Bathurst 7:30 p.m.Sat., May 4 at Acadie-Bathurst 7:30 p.m.Tues., May 7 at Victoriaville 7 p.m.Wed., May 8 at Victoriaville 7 p.m.Fri., May 10 at Acadie-Bathurst 7:30 p.m. *Sun., May 12 at Victoriaville 4 p.m. *Tues., May 14 at Acadie-Bathurst 7:30 p.m. *